1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to the field of film viewers and more particularly to a new and useful ring viewer having a continuous strip of film housed within the ring that may be moved a frame at a time to be viewed through a lens held in the ring.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Prior art known to applicants comprises the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ Patentee U.S. Pat. No. Date Issued ______________________________________ Cain 1,586,606 June 1, 1926 Goldman 2,129,759 Sept. 13, 1938 Jelinek 2,520,410 Aug. 29, 1950 Brown 2,570,913 Oct. 9, 1951 Hepp 2,668,369 Feb. 9, 1954 Lazarus, et al. 3,887,270 June 3, 1975 ______________________________________
Cain discloses a ring having inner and outer annular sections which may be adjusted with respect to each other to cover or uncover a mirror held on the inner annular section.
Goldman discloses a hand-held film viewer having a lens at one end of a casing and a film holder at the other end to allow a strip of film to be passed over a sight opening.
Jelinek discloses a film viewing device in which an endless strip of film is mechanically driven around a track to pass a lens equipped eyepiece. Light is allowed to pass through the film to the eyepiece via an opening formed in the casing holding the film track on the side opposite the eyepiece.
Brown discloses a toy film viewer utilizing film discs and a lens system to view the film.
Hepp discloses a bracelet which contains a number of openings for showing ciphers, one at a time, contained on endless bands held within the bracelet.
Lazarus, et al., discloses a stylus device for viewing a sequence of images. One end of the stylus is equipped with a rotatable translucent tubular member having a lens at one end and a number of photographic images arranged in a ring within the tubular member. A mirror is held at a 45.degree. angle within the tubular member near the photographic images and allows a user to see different images in the mirror, through the eyepiece, as the translucent tubular member is turned.
None of the prior art devices discloses a simple and inexpensive ring viewer, and in particular, a ring viewer having an endless strip of film sealed inside thereof. Nor do they disclose a ring viewer in which sequential images may be viewed through a lens mounted within the ring, by action of an uncomplicated advance mechanism held within the ring.